Hi! My name is Aaron. My Dharma name is Shan Yin. I got this name after a refuge ceremony and taking refuge vows at a Chinese Mahayana Temple in Vancouver. It means compassionate cause. I am an old veteran member of newbuddhist.com, but felt I don't have alot of common ground with most of the threads that are posted there. Also, I think that the Theravada school is right for me, with all deep respect I have for other schools. I have been on a retreat at a Theravada Hermitage, one month long. I struggle with mental health issues and am starting to hope I can overcome it.

I have just started meditating again, doing refuge and reciting precepts. What rocketed me into Buddhism was the book "Dharma Punx" by Noah Levine. Although at the start I felt like I got it, Buddhism for a while to me was a faith belief system.

I have come to this forum because I like to read, I like to learn, and I like encoutering like minded people.

---The trouble is that you think you have time------Worry is the Interest, paid in advance, on a debt you may never owe------It's not what happens to you in life that is important ~ it's what you do with it ---

You will not be punished FOR your 'emotions'; you will be punished BY your 'emotions'.

Pay attention, simplify, and (Meditation instruction in a nutshell) "Mind - the Gap." ‘Absit invidia verbo’ - may ill-will be absent from the word. And mindful of that, if I don't respond, this may be why....